Prohibitory orders fail to dampen New Year revelry

Police tightened up on the city's Brigade Road. Credit: DH Photo

Prohibitory orders by the state government fail to douse the New Year spirit of revellers across the city as party-goers flocked to restaurants and pubs in Central Business District (CBD) regardless of the restrictions.

Pubs, liquor shops, and restaurants in Indiranagar, Residency Road, and Koramangala witnessed steady business towards late evening.

In order to assess the situation, DH visited several areas in South Bengaluru, Jayanagar, Residency Road, Koramangala and Indiranagar until 11 pm. Several MRP liquor outlets, wine shops, bars and restaurants, and other eateries were doing brisk business. While the ban was seriously pursued and enforced in CBD areas like MG Road, Church Street and Brigade Road, other areas relatively witnessed a steady inflow of crowd.

On MG Road and Brigade Road, police barricaded the roads and deployed additional forces to regulate the crowd. Only those with pre-booked coupons were allowed to enter the areas. However, people had to walk long as vehicles were banned. The same situation was in Koramangala and in Indiranagar.

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Covid-19 guidelines went for a toss in many restaurants and pubs as it was common to see more than five to six people sitting on a table without wearing facemasks or maintaining social distance.

People who attended the party agreed that crowds were thin this New Year's Eve mainly due to the fear of the police and not because of the pandemic. Bengaluru Police Commissioner Kamal Pant himself went on patrolling in CBD and other areas. Additional commissioners, joint commissioners, and deputy commissioner of police also patrolled in their respective divisions.

Though the prohibitory order was imposed from noon onwards, gatherings of more than five people were seen across the city as all the commercial establishments like hardware, electronics, groceries, eateries and other shops, including roadside pushcart eateries, were kept open.

A hotelier requesting anonymity said if the police kept imposing a ban in this way, the public would not take it seriously anymore.

Traffic police closed all the flyovers across the city by 10.30 pm and were checking the motorists for drink driving and people roaming unnecessarily. According to Pant, until 11 pm, no cases were registered of prohibitory order violations.